Forget Hitchhikers, This Is One For The Family

The Age

Saturday February 23, 2008

The tester Barry Park

WHAT WE'VE BEEN DRIVING LATELY

VOLVO XC70

The price From $58,950. The diesel engine adds $2000.

Vital statistics 3.2-litre V6 petrol (170 kW/320 Nm), 2.4-litre in-line five-cylinder turbo-diesel (136 kW/400 Nm), six-speed automatic, no manual.

WHY WE'RE DRIVING IT

Well, we're driving it for a very different reason to the television advertisement. While they show a happy couple in the XC70 traversing the mountain scree, picking up bushwalkers as they go, we threw an even more punishing test at it: young children. We drove the D5 diesel made up to $66,950 LE spec - that gave it $11,365 worth of options - that included the Continuously Controlled Chassis Concept adaptive suspension, Blind Spot Information System, active bi-xenon headlights and self-opening tailgate, and then jumped straight into the 3.2 petrol with $5285 worth of options including speed-sensitive power steering and Bluetooth.

LIKES

The XC70 stands out as something special. It has borrowed some of the best parts from the XC60 concept car shown at Geneva last year to create a modern look, even improving on it with brushed metal-rimmed trapezoid running lights.

Inside, it is well built, visually appealing, relatively user friendly - hooking a phone into the $445 Bluetooth system takes a bit of fiddling - and great for children.

The XC70 has two second-generation booster seats built into the rear seats. Push a catch and the seat pops up to one level, push another and it goes to an even higher setting. Children can grow into the car without ever needing a store-bought booster seat.

There's an electrically operated tailgate that can close one-handed with babe in arm, air-conditioning vents on the B-pillars to cool back-seat tempers down, and a special child lock switch on the driver's armrest that will both stop the little ones playing with the electric window switch, and lock the door so that it can't be opened mid-journey. Even better, press the key to unlock the door and the car's air-conditioning system flushes the interior with fresh air.

DISLIKES

The XC70's all-wheel-drive system takes its toll on economy. We averaged about 9.6 L/100 km in the diesel in a mix of city and country driving, but the petrol returned a figure that wouldn't drop below 12.3 L/100 km. The diesel is definitely the choice of the engines, as the petrol V6 lacks a little bit of pep in stop-start traffic.

It's good, too, that Volvo is broadening the appeal by introducing the LE specification. However, it pushes the price for the top-spec D5 LE within cooee of the much more versatile base-model seven-seat XC90. Oh, and scrolling through the

options list, a grocery bag holder is a $200 extra. That's mean.

WOULD I BUY ONE?

I do like it. It stands out in the urban environment, shouts "I'd like to go

a-wandering today, but first let's get the kids to school", is inoffensive to drive and can easily be counted among the most family-friendly cars on the road. But even the base-model XC70 still costs more than even the most expensive Subaru Outback. It's a tall ask, but for the sake of the family, one I'd be willing to stretch to.

© 2008 The Age

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